P2P Company Touts Useless Copyright Infringement Insurance

from the A-for-effort dept

Two things about file sharing are certain: 1) The spate of RIAA lawsuits against file sharers probably won't end anytime soon, and 2) this probably won't stop lots of people from sharing music online. One P2P company is trying to capitalize on this confluence of trends by offering copyright infringement insurance. As Ernest Miller points out, the idea isn't all that new -- and wasn't that good to begin with. The company says it is striking deals with music rights holders to make its network's file sharing legal and is backing that up with $5,000 worth of insurance for users who "inadvertently" get sued. Of course, there's no evidence that any licenses from labels have been -- or have a decent chance of being -- secured, in which case your insurance payout won't get you too far when the RIAA comes knocking. And on the off-chance that licenses are granted, there's no need for insurance. The whole plan amounts to little more than a publicity stunt that does more to drain money from users' pockets than protect them from the RIAA.